214 THE LOWER AMAZOITS. Chap. VI. 



travel the same distance. It was a great blessing to the 

 inhabitants when, in 1853, a line of steamers was estab- 

 lished, and this same journey could be accomplished 

 with ease and comfort, at all seasons, in eight days ! 



It is, perhaps, not generally known that the Portu- 

 guese, as early as 1710, had a fair knowledge of the 

 Amazons ; but the information gathered by their govern- 

 ment from various expeditions undertaken on a grand 

 scale, was long withheld from the rest of the world, 

 through the jealous policy which ruled in their colonial 

 affairs. From the foundation of Para by Caldeira, in 

 1615, to the settlement of the boundary line between 

 the Spanish and Portuguese possessions, Peru and 

 Brazil, in 1781-91, numbers of these expeditions were 

 in succession undertaken. The largest was the one 

 commanded by Pedro Texeira in 1637-9, who ascended 

 the river to Quito, by way of the Napo, a distance of 

 about 2800 miles, with 45 canoes and 900 men, and 

 returned to Para without any great misadventure by the 

 same route. Tlie success of this remarkable undertaking 

 amply proved, at that early date, the facility of the river 

 navigation, the practicability of the country, and the 

 good disposition of the aboriginal inhabitants. The 

 river, however, was first discovered by the Spaniards, 

 the mouth having been visited by Pinzon in 1500, and 

 nearly the whole course of the river navigated by 

 Orellana in 1541-2. The voyage of the latter was one 

 of the most remarkable on record. Orellana was a lieu- 

 tenant of Gonzalo Pizarro, governor of Quito, and 

 accompanied the latter in an adventurous journey 



